Close-knit democracy

Sunday

Oct 13, 2013 at 6:00 AM

The government shutdown is as harmful as it is rich in peculiarities. It makes it illegal for about 800,000 federal employees deemed "nonessential" to show up for work because the funding to pay them has not been approved. But a vote by Congress to grant furloughed federal workers back pay not only negates any savings but it is likely to raise net costs to taxpayers. It means hundreds of thousands of workers get what amounts to extra paid holidays — which they didn't want — even as Americans are denied essential services.

Shutdowns can be costly. The last government shutdown, which lasted 27 days in 1995 and 1996, cost an estimated $2.1 billion. Most of the cost was attributed to paying back wages to furloughed employees. Secondary costs include the expense of getting the government back on its feet once the shutdown is over, and paying for higher bids submitted by contractors who are hedging against future instability.

"The public doesn't have a whole lot of respect for the efficiency of the government," William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center declared. "Well, they should have even less when people are getting paid for not doing anything."

Whatever esteem might remain quickly evaporates as people watch the kind of political game-playing that governs the making of major decisions. Republicans have insisted on delays or significant changes to President Obama's health care law as a condition for funding the government. Democrats consider such restriction unacceptable, arguing that the law was upheld by the courts and parts of it are already implemented.

The ensuing stalemate produces some absurdities. To prevent furloughed workers from idleness or boredom, the Federal Aviation Administration offered them free knitting lessons. Some 30 people took advantage of the offer, including Julie Flores Kriegsfeld, who designs air control surveillance for the FAA. "Congress would rather have us stay home and go ahead and pay us for that, but not get any work out of it," she said. "I don't know how they feel like that is a reasonable mindset."

It certainly isn't. There is, however, considerable wiggle room with the term "essential," attached to employees who are expected to show up for work even during a shutdown. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reduced some of the waste, deeming 350,000 of the Pentagon's civilian employees essential, leaving about 450,000 still furloughed. The District of Columbia government declared all of its workers essential to avoid the prospect of cutting off trash pickup or closing libraries.

Looming is the Oct. 17 deadline to raise the national debt to avoid an economically catastrophic default. Polls show growing disapproval of the way Congress and President Obama have handled the crisis. Republicans continued to bear the greatest responsibility, with 70 percent blaming the GOP. Democrats in Congress got 61 percent disapproval, and President Obama received 51 percent disapproval.

The fact that no one rated approval indicates a sobering lack of confidence in the system. Numbers alone don't tell the whole story, and it is a matter of interpretation whether such skepticism is good or bad. It can be argued that healthy skepticism leads to correcting shortcomings and producing improvement. But chronic skepticism could do harm if it translates into negativism.

While the government shutdown played havoc on the national scene, Boston was hit by a strike of school bus drivers that came without warning and left many students stranded and their parents scrambling for alternative transportation. The strike rippled beyond the city's school system, affecting charter, parochial and private schools that rely on the buses. Absenteeism skyrocketed, as 10,000 students missed school, about three times the normal number.

The strike triggered widespread outrage. "I'm extremely angry," Mayor Tom Menino said. "These are selfish people who only want to cause disruption in our city … The only thing in jeopardy here is their own livelihood. This union cannot stop our schools from educating young people."

State Rep. Martin J. Walsh, a candidate for Mr. Menino's job, said: "The bus drivers have put our children in harm's way. This is an illegal action, causing a huge disruption, and I call on the bus drivers to return to work immediately. This is a violation of the contract and cannot be tolerated."

The strike is the latest debacle for the city's school bus system, which was marred with chronically late buses for two years, reaching a crisis in fall 2011, when 37 percent of the buses ran up to an hour late.

Tension flared over whether the drivers should face disciplinary action. The union requested amnesty for all drivers who participated in the work stoppage, while the private contractor that oversees the city's four bus wards, Veolia Corp., explored sanctions. The union's contract forbids strikes, and employees could face termination, but it is unlikely the strikers will be punished.

They never are. Contracts forbidding illegal strikes are routinely ignored in the public sector, thus endangering the common good and encouraging more work stoppages staged for self-serving causes. All too often the public is defenseless against such behavior, and the best we can say is "please, pass the knitting needles."

Robert Z. Nemeth's column appears regularly in the Sunday Telegram.

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